Luxury notebook maker Moleskine is going to push ahead with a €350m (£280m)
stock-exchange float despite interest from the likes of BC Partners and Lion
Capital.

Moleskine, which makes upmarket leather bound stationary, will file for its Italian stock market listing this week after hiring Rothschild, Goldman Sachs and UBS to run the process.

Marco Ariello, a partner at Syntegra Capital, which owns 70pc of Moleskine, said that the company’s valuation was likely to be higher via an initial public offering than by selling the business to another private equity firm.

“This is a strong brand that sells in 90 geographies around the world and has no competition anywhere,” said Mr Ariello.

“The public markets are a natural fit,” he said, adding it was usual to get interest from other funds.

According to its website, Moleskine was established to replicate the style of notebook used by artists and writers such as Vincent Van Gogh and Ernest Hemingway.